Welcoming Raj De Datta To Founder Collective
By David Frankel, Eric Paley & Micah Rosenbloom
Achieving a great fit between a Founder Partner and our team is tricky. For a start, we prefer to have known each other for a while. We believe that the foundation of any great partnership is trust and unwavering belief in each other’s competence. We apply that philosophy to our own team as resolutely as the teams in which we invest. Additionally, each of our Founder Partners is a well known and respected entrepreneur and each has a track record of seed investing, typically in partnership with FC.
We have to share each other’s values and at Founder Collective, first and foremost that means a gut desire to support and nurture founders. We do what we do, in part, to carry on the legacy of those who supported us when we were first starting out.
We know that our Founder Partners apply these same criteria just as rigorously as we do and getting the puzzle to fit is tough. So given this context, we’re thrilled to announce Raj De Datta as our newest Founder Partner. Raj and FC simply couldn’t be a better fit. We’ve known Raj for over 12 years. We’ve invested at the seed stage together in companies like hunch (eBay), Yub (Coupons.com) and TrialPay. I vividly recall a lengthy conversation together about a burgeoning cold chain opportunity in India which Raj was seriously considering just before he founded Bloomreach. We’ve shared fun meals together including in Raj’s Palo Alto home. Meanwhile Bloomreach, founded in 2008, has become one of the most successful B2B big data marketing companies in the US. Raj, as both a full time CEO and seed investor, is a highly sought after sounding board for aspiring entrepreneurs particularly in B2B software and retail channel marketing.
Raj is a three time entrepreneur with experience that is far wider than B2B. He co-founded Firstmark Communications in London at age 23 ($80m run rate and 600 employees) as well as a venture from within Cisco in 2003. Raj has started to blog more recently and shares terrific personal insights on topics such as founder’s time management and entrepreneurial leadership. We’re delighted and humbled that Raj chose Founder Collective as his platform for his continued seed investing activity, while he focuses first and foremost on Bloomreach. It fits perfectly with our model, and we know Raj will be a terrific addition to the FC team. Welcome Raj!